Travelling to any location outside of your country is usually a long, difficult process that has many hoops that you have to jump through to get into the other country. You have to have many verified documents that prove who you are and that you are allowed to fly. Now, there is a new requirement that is being added onto all of the other requirements in order for most people to visit Canada. This new requirement is called an eTA, or Electronic Travel Authorization, that is going to be put into effect as of September 29, 2016. Before this time, you are allowed to travel into the country as long as you have all of the appropriate identification and any other requirements. This new Electronic Travel Authorization is not required for any U.S. citizen, travelers with a Canadian visa that is valid, or any Canadian citizen. The whole purpose of this new authorization is so that Canada can properly check any and every foreigner that wants to enter the country thoroughly.
How to Get an Electronic Travel Authorization
Getting an Electronic Travel Authorization is a fairly simple process as long as you don’t have anything on your record that could prevent you from getting allowed into the country. You only need to provide a few things that would all mostly be required to enter the country anyways. When signing up for an Electronic Travel Authorization, you need to provide a passport that is valid from a country that is visa exempt. For this part, you cannot substitute it with almost anything such as Refugee Travel Document or an OAS Travel Document. The only things that are valid substitutes for a passport would be a U.S. Refugee Travel Document and a permit that is valid to enter the U.S. After you have at least one of the appropriate documentations for your Electronic Travel Authorization, then you have to provide a valid credit card for a $7 purchase fee. The only type of cards that are accepted are Visa, MasterCard, or American Express. You can also provide a prepaid version of all of those cards as long as it has enough money on one card. The final thing that you need to provide for your Electronic Travel Authorization is a valid email address. Keep in mind that in order to get eTAs for more than one person, such as a family, you will need to fill out individual forms for each person. Group forms are not available.
